


Midnight Animal

by caramelcoffeefist (daoxmu)



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series)
Genre: Crossover, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-14
Updated: 2016-05-10
Packaged: 2018-05-26 16:54:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6248002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daoxmu/pseuds/caramelcoffeefist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hotline Miami AU. Eventually the night calls become Red's new home but he's still the same.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Static

Minutes after the act, Red still shook.

Dried trails on his cheeks tugged at his skin. Hopefully it was sweat. The rubber pikachu mask encasing his head was a sauna on the inside.

This job had gotten a little ugly. There were a few moments where he had shut his eyes, swung the machete he’d found and hoped for the best. 

A dead static throbbed in the back of his brain. He heard no more footsteps, no yelling.

Red was done here.

Striding toward the entrance he was gripped by a memory from earlier.

Thinking back to when he first received tonight's call, Red did remember something a bit different.

_"Good evening! This is 'Tom' speaking. We have a job for you in Saffron. There's a power outage... Over on 24th NE St. We want you to take care of it. We already sent someone over a while ago... But it seems they didn't do a very good job. Head over there right away! They're expecting you. Keep it quick and clean!" *CLICK*_

Red backtracked to the toilet near the entrance of the hotel where there had been a body lying face down wearing a red pea coat. Notably, Red wasn’t responsible for this one.

It hadn't bothered him upon coming in. Nerves making him too skittish to think of anything other than the blunt camping knife in his trembling fingers and the job ahead.

They wore a red pea coat and very notably, a piplup mask. He didn't miss the pipe in their hand either.

_“We already sent someone over a while ago... But it seems they didn't do a very good job.”_

Someone got the jump on her, she was unlucky. She, Red assumed going off of the long hair and go-go boots. He didn’t have the mental strength to deduce any more. Hours of trying to kill and not be killed by foreign mobsters had drained him.

More importantly what was he going to do about Piplup mask? Maybe she had a family. Red thought about what if he had ended up dead on one of these errands.

Someone found him. They removed the mask, it made news and everyone found out that he was the masked maniac offing people. The development destroyed his family and friends, what little he had.

He stared at the bullet wound on piplup mask's chest then thought about all the cut up mobsters upstairs. 

Pulling his pikachu mask up to his nose, Red wiped his face with the back of his glove.

He bent down next to piplup mask and pried the pipe out of fingers that had not yet gone stiff. Next he pulled off the piplup mask.

Piplup was indeed a young girl.

Without the mask the girl was a trainer, a breeder, anyone. Someone who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Not a killer in a piplup mask at least.

Some of the mob had dropped guns when Red offed them. Red pocketed the mask and kicked the pipe into a corner. He had some choices to make. Red could go to town with a scavenged gun to the men in suits upstairs or...

Go at the dead girl with the machete he’d found.

Guns weren't legal in Kanto or Johto. Red didn't think he had ever seen one in person even. What was a safety? He had heard something about them having a strong kick and spraying gunpowder everywhere. These were the only gloves he had what if he screwed everything up? Winter was ferocious in his cave on Mount Silver he needed these gloves.

Take the machete to the dead girl.

His job was done. Leave the body. Ride his bicycle far away from here. 

Knife. The. Dead. Girl.

60 to the bike.

The first call Red had acted on he had been slow and careless. He had ended up bashing someone in with a briefcase and threw up right after. If he didn’t make a decision soon there was going to be a repeat incident.

Red ran back up the stairs and placed the machete back under the desk where he’d found it. Nearly all of the mob had been armed. Soon enough Red tripped on a double-barrelled shotgun.

Here he was: Hands shaking so much he seriously wondered if he was going to miss a dead body right in front of him. God it would look so stupid if he shot himself in the foot or if the kickback hit him in the face.

Red had to do it. For the headline. “Unfortunate Trainer in the Wrong Place at the Wrong Time”.

Red took aim.

“Get out of here if you don’t want to die!”

Red should have gone for the bicycle.


	2. Prank Call

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So begins a series of stains that won't come out.

The first message came a few months ago.

_You have one new message *BEEP*_

_"Hi this is 'Van' at the bakery in Vermillion City. The cookies that you ordered should be delivered by now... A list of ingredients is included... Make sure you read them carefully!..." *CLICK*_

Red only ever called in deliveries for volcano burgers from Cinnabar Island.

Seeing as how they had hung up before Red could get a word in edgewise he called the number back.

... Only for no one to pick up.

How did someone mess up a delivery badly enough that they didn't realise something was amiss by the time they were at the peak of Mount Silver?

Red hadn't become Pokemon Champion by sweating the details. It appeared that he was going to be appropriating some cookies.

However there was a parcel very specifically addressed to _him_ at the foot of his cave.

Curiouser still Red opened the package to find a pikachu mask and a letter.

"Kanto is a tune. It must be sung together. Thank you for joining. -Team Rocket"

Red narrowed his eyes. Maybe he shouldn’t have given his pokégear number to everyone he made eye contact with.

Red stuffed everything back into the box and shoved it into the darkest corner of the cave.

Not a week later Red received another message. This was the most action his pokégear had seen in months.

_You have one new message! *BEEP*_

_"Good evening! This is 'Joey' from Celadon pest control. We need you. A client is having vermin problems. Try to handle it as quick and swift as you can. Someone else will clean up after you after you leave. Make sure not to bother any of the neighbours!" ...*CLICK*_

Red deleted the message and readied his bag. Steadfastly ignoring the pile in the corner accumulating dust. He had to pick up kerosene and rations from town. No time to deal with weird messages. 

Then a month. Enough for Red to have forgotten all about Joey in Celadon and Van in Vermillion.

"I fucking hate it up here."

Red went on trudging through the snow. They were nearly to his cave at the summit now, another seventeen minutes to be exact. 

He looked over to see Virdian City’s local hero stumbling behind him. Maybe longer than seventeen minutes.

Red turned around and walked faster. "Then stop coming up here. Don’t you have a gym to be running?"

Green adjusted his muffler. “Not that it matters to you but it’s freezing in the rest of Kanto right now. Not really great adventuring season you know?”

Red gasped. “Already? I’ll post a cold warning.”

“Tch. Honestly if someone’s already decided to climb up this god forsaken mountain to challenge you I don’t think the _cold_ of all things is going to stop them.”

“They’re not as tough as they used to be.” Red scowled at Green, “at least not since the league got involved.”

“We only tell them to go to the mountain if they get to Lance!” A particularly tough patch of snow caught Green’s ankle and he face-planted in the snow with a resounding whump. 

Green turned over and groaned. He probably looked like a loser, in front of Red of all people. Did it really matter when it was this cold out though? 

“Red could we not fly to the summit? I’m certain your charizard could learn it.” 

Red thought today’s walk up the mountain was awfully noisy.

“Maybe melt a path for us or something. Aerodactyl could fly us to the peak even.”

The annoying voice was fading, Red should probably slow down. “Shitty HM move.”

“There’s more to life than battling.”

“Shitty contest move.” Red mumbled.

Green stopped and pitched his arm out, catching Red hard in the chest.

“Holy shit! Red, look!”

The entrance of the cave was coming into view. Black smoke pouring out of the gaping mouth.

Red slapped Green’s arm away and broke into a run. The closer he got the more smoke there was, and where there was smoke…

Green ran after him. “Idiot don’t go in there!”

Yanking Green’s muffler off, Red grabbed a handful of snow and rubbed it into the material before tying it over his nose and mouth. 

Photographs, badges, other memories, had all either been left with his mother in Pallet Town or he had them on his person. However if his abode had been completely firebombed he wouldn’t be able to stay here tonight. Heaven forbid he went back to his mother in Pallet Town he would never hear the end of it from her. Hitching a flight to Hoenn even seemed more appealing.

Red stopped a few paces into the cave. There was no fire. The smoke appeared to be coming from two large black craters on the floor. Red could make out the remains of his tent, only a few supports though. His sleeping bag had been wholly obliterated.

A heavy hand fell on his shoulder, Red braced himself for the coming blow.

“Red, stay at the gym.” 

Forget Hoenn. Red considered flying off to _Kalos_.

“No.” Red hissed. 

Green tightened his grip. “Please just lay low at the gym for a while.”

Red surveyed his smouldering lair and stopped fighting Green.

“Ugh finally.” Green whispered. “Maybe get your mother out of Pallet Town. I have friends in the league that can harbour her.”

Red narrowed his eyes. “My mother…?”

“There’ve been whisperings of other regions targeting prominent figures in Kanto.” Green scrubbed over his weary eyes with a palm. “Politicians, gym leaders…”

He leaned in closer to Red. “Pokemon Champions.”

In case Green forgot Red’s inventory was very clearly void of _anything_ that marked him as being a Pokemon Champion, former or otherwise. As far as he was concerned he was unaffiliated with the league or anything “prominent” in Kanto. Red told Green this.

“Then what’s this?!” Green shouted. Tightening his grip on Red’s shoulder with one hand, the other violently gesturing around the cave. “Even if you don’t, someone dangerous clearly considers you a target.”

What had been black billowing clouds of smoke were now reduced to mere wisps while they had been bickering. Red could now see his destroyed home more clearly, it looked just as uninhabitable as it did when he had first rushed into the cave.

The will to argue with Green was quickly dissipating. 

Red will agree, if only to get Green off his back. It would be better if Green wasn’t here for what was coming next.

“Later.”

Green barely made out Red’s lips moving, the cap hiding half of his face wasn’t helping either.

“You sure about that, friend?” Countless visits had given Green much experience in being ushered out of places by Red. By this point he knew the signs. 

“Since when did you care so much?” 

Red peered up at Green from under his cap. That came out with more venom than he had intended. History had a way of warping one’s words and Red couldn’t help that.

“Look,” Green snapped, ripping his eyes away from Red. 

He sighed. “You know what? You’re right.”

Green turned around and made to leave. “Come over or not, I don’t give a shit.”

Red watched Green stomp off into the distance, and here he had thought Green was finally becoming less of a prick.

Sometimes they still came back to him; the cuts he and Green amassed running through the tall grass, how difficult it was to separate for any reason, how Green’s hand felt on his arm dragging him to the lab.

As there were laws of physics Red came to the conclusion there were also “laws of Green”. Foremost being that at some point Green decided he was too cool to hang out with Red anymore. Green made himself an insufferable prick and Green would have to be the one to make himself not be an insufferable prick.

Never mind him though. The message light on his pokégear had been blinking for a while now, irritating him. Red hit play.

_Hi, this is Susan from Celadon Funeral Service... We've got an appointment scheduled with you today. For the funeral of a Green Oak. Come whenever you like. We're open all day. Our office is on NE 139th St. *CLICK*_

Yet here he was. Pikachu mask already on, Red sifted through his burnt possessions looking for something sharp enough to open the letter from many moons ago. 

Never mind him indeed, Red thought.


End file.
